Congress should require regulators to address long freight-train issues, report says

Increased safety challenges and operational demands of long freight trains require a combination of actions from major freight railroads, the Federal Railroad Administration and Congress, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

In addition to evaluating issues around safety, operations and crew training for long trains, the report examines their potential to block grade crossings and to interfere with Amtrak’s intercity passenger trains. Over the past two decades, freight railroads have been operating increasingly longer manifest trains. The trains haul different types of rail cars of varying weight and sizes. The number and mix of cars can add to the extreme forces that moving trains experience, which can stress equipment and create handling challenges for train crews, increasing the potential for derailments if not closely managed, the report says.

There is no threshold at which a manifest train becomes a “long train” and subject to greater safety concerns, the report states. Rather, as the length of the train increases, it becomes more important to manage in-train forces by placing additional locomotives in the train and assembling trains correctly. Also, since manifest trains carry a mix of cargo, rail cars of different types are picked up and dropped off en route, so a train’s handling demands can change over the course of a single trip.

“Freight railroads have provided such a dependable way to move goods and materials across the U.S. for so long that it’s easy to overlook them, but railroad operations have changed a great deal over the past few decades, as have the technologies used and our understanding of the best safety management practices,” said Debra Miller, chair of the committee that wrote the report, in a press release. “So, the time is right for Congress, regulatory bodies, and the industry itself to take a closer look at railroad practices and regulations to ensure the safest operations going forward.”

Currently, the FRA doesn't require railroads to target all major operational changes in their safety management systems. The agency requires only that railroads have “streamlined” risk reduction programs, which the report says raises questions about whether railroads are being sufficiently proactive and systematic in controlling the risks from longer trains, such as by using safe train-makeup practices and ensuring that crews are appropriately trained.

The FRA should strengthen the requirements so that railroads must identify, analyze and address the risks that arise from all major operational changes, including from the use of longer manifest trains, according to the report. Additionally, the FRA should seek resources from Congress to hire and train a team of auditors to critically assess all elements of each railroad’s risk reduction program and verify implementation.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the study was conducted by the Committee on the Impact of Trains Longer than 7,500 Feet.

The full report can be read here.